I heard him sigh. "You know I don't want that."
"I know."
“I miss you so much,” he murmured. It felt like he was practically nuzzling my ear. "How about we have coffee, and a calm chat, and we will figure out a way to either get past this, or stay friendly acquaintances. Does that sound reasonable?"
I nodded, then almost laughed when I realized he couldn't see it. "Yes. Okay."
Eric sounded completely relieved. "How about Mowat’s Cafe near King and Yonge? Tomorrow at six? They’re usually slow that time of day. I go there sometimes to do a little extra paperwork and get out of my office."
"All right. I'll see you then," I said.
"Eden," he said gently, "I appreciate you taking a chance on this. On us. I don't know what you've been through, but it sounds like it's been really hard. I don't want to make anything worse for you. I think you're being very brave."
"Thank you," I squeaked, but I ended the call quickly as the tears took over again.
I was fully aware that meeting up with him might be the craziest thing I'd ever done. I didn't like the thought of following the letter, and not the spirit of the law. It felt shifty. But he was right that technically we hadn't gone against Nana’s prophecy. Or, warning. Whatever The Knowing was.
My family had never discussed it in great detail. If I was going to consider not being with this amazing guy out of fear of a strange power, I should know more about it.
Although I had always been much closer to my grandmother than my mother, I didn't feel right about asking Nana directly. So I called my Mom.
"Hi, sweetie," she trilled. "I haven't heard from you in ages. How are you?"
"I'm pretty good, keeping busy."
We caught up on our daily lives for a few minutes, but I knew that she could tell I had a point to get to. "So, what's up?" she asked.
“Okay, so you know when Nana sort of zones out, and says something to the ceiling? You know how what she says then always comes true?"
"We are not discussing this,” Mom said sharply. "What else is new with you?"
"Come on. This is important."
I could almost hear my mother shaking her head as she always did when she was upset. "It's bad luck to talk about it," she said in a very strange, tight tone. "I can't."
“Relax," I said. "I just want to ask about the process, and what it is."
"No. Have a nice day, sweetie."
My mother actually hung up on me. Biscuits.
~ Chapter 12 ~ Eric ~
* Dark Gray Suit *
I had pitched proposals for building construction worth over six hundred million dollars. I had negotiated deals with CEOs of the most gigantic tech corporations. I'd negotiated with politicians, city planners, and all sorts of anal-retentive bureaucratic people.
At no point in my life had I ever prepared for a meeting with this level of overzealous precision, even though I had barely any information to work with. My coffee chat with Eden would be my most important meeting ever.
I consulted with Patricia to help me pick a suit and tie that would make me look the most non-threatening and appealing. She told me to go with the darkest gray since it was softer than black. She remembered that I had a caramel and peach swirl tie that was softer than most of my plain bold colors.
Calling my sister, I asked Angie if bringing flowers would be too much. She agreed that it would. She assured me that any gifts at this point might be taken the wrong way.
Skimming the news, I made note of all light, entertaining topics, in case she brought something up. I checked the weather.
I reviewed everything I knew about Eden, and tried to think of any way to disprove her belief in her grandmother's so-called powers without insulting her in any way. I couldn't tell her it was silly to believe in something. It was obviously a family tradition, of sorts.
I looked up a bunch of facts on premonitions, psychic ability, and prophecies. The proven rate of accuracy was almost zero. The few instances where accurate things were foretold, they were so vague that it was easily a coincidence. I didn't want to spring all of this on her, but I had a bunch of notes loaded in my phone in case the topic came up.